Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Mid-Week Post

A knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage at the heart of
Britain’s seat of power Wednesday, mowing down pedestrians on London’s
Westminster Bridge before stabbing an armed police officer to death
inside the gates of Parliament. Four people were killed, including the
attacker, and about 20 others were injured.

Lawmakers, lords, staff and visitors were locked down as the man was
shot by police within the perimeter of Parliament and just metres from
entrances to the building itself. He died, as did two pedestrians on the
bridge, and the police officer.

A doctor who treated the wounded said some had “catastrophic” injuries.

In the House of Commons, deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle announced that
the sitting was being suspended and told lawmakers not to leave.

Police said they were treating the attacks as a terrorist incident
and had launched a full counterterrorism investigation. There was no
immediate claim of responsibility.

“We are satisfied at this stage that it looks like there was only on
attacker,” said Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley.
“But it would be foolish to be overconfident early on.”

The threat level for international terrorism in the U.K. was already listed at severe, meaning an attack is “highly likely.”

After that day, it emerged that the attacks were carried out by four
guys who were Muslim. That’s what hit me more. Being a Muslim myself, I
thought: “Well, why? Why would you do that? What ideology did you
possess?” If they’d known their religion, it clearly states that to kill
one innocent life is killing all humanity.

The future is coming at you, fast, and the Liberal government says it knows you're getting anxious — and potentially angry.

Finance
Minister Bill Morneau delivered a federal budget Wednesday that aims to
get Canadians ready for a changing world and potentially shield the
Liberals from the forces that brought U.S. President Donald Trump to
power.

"Everyday
folks who work hard to provide for their families are worried about the
future," Morneau said in his speech to the House of Commons as he
tabled the 2017 federal budget, the second since the Liberals formed a
majority government in 2015.

"They're
worried that rapid technological change, the seemingly never-ending
need for new skills and growing demands on our time will mean that their
kids won't have the same opportunities that they had. And who can blame
them?" Morneau said.

After
setting up the doom and the gloom, Morneau spoke of the good news:
Canadians have always been able to adapt to changing circumstances.

The
budget, which projects a deficit of $28.6 billion this coming fiscal
year, including a contingency reserve, is designed to help them get
there.

The row between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of a U.S.
missile-defense system has seen China overtake even former colonizer
Japan in the ranking of South Koreans’ least-favored countries, a survey
shows.

Seoul was blanketed with toxic haze on Tuesday morning, with air pollution at one point reaching the second worst in the world.

The
density of ultrafine or PM2.5 particles reached over 100 ㎍/㎥ per hour
in the capital. The air quality in Seoul has hovered between 51 and 100
㎍/㎥, or even worse for four days. Skies in most parts of Gyeonggi
Province were also obscured by toxic haze all morning.

Seoul's air
quality index at one point reached 179, the second worst in the world
after New Delhi, according to AirVisual, a website that measures and
compares pollutant levels in major cities around the world. ...

"It's possible that more fine dust
accumulated this year as migratory anticyclones from China have hovered
near the Korean Peninsula," said Chang Im-suk at the institute. "Another
possible reason is that smog has worsened in China as factories resumed
operations in the Beijing area once the annual sessions of the National
People's Congress and the Politburo came to a close on March 15."

A lawyer representing the family of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a Russian
auditor and lawyer who died in prison in 2009 after uncovering a $308
million fraud targeting an American-born financier, suffered severe head
injuries Tuesday after plunging from his Moscow apartment building.

Russian news organizations said the lawyer, Nikolai Gorokhov, fell
while helping movers carry a hot tub up to his fourth floor apartment.
They showed photographs of a shattered tub outside the building.

But the financier, William F. Browder, said Gorokhov was to appear in
a Moscow court on Wednesday to appeal on behalf of Magnitsky’s mother
for an investigation into new evidence relating to the fraud scheme
first exposed by Magnitsky.

North Carolina may have lost out on the NCAA championships, the NBA
All-Star Game and Bruce Springsteen thanks to its hotly contested
transgender bathroom law, but the state’s economy didn’t miss a beat.

Economic
indicators released for 2016 show that the boycott has failed to derail
North Carolina as a regional and national powerhouse, despite the loss
of high-profile performances and sporting events in response to House
Bill 2, signed March 23 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory.

A former shelter dog in Michigan is being credited with saving the
life of a 3-year-old girl who was found naked and alone in freezing
weather.

The Delta Animal Shelter shared a letter on Facebook from the family
of Peanut, an abused dog that arrived at the shelter nearly a year ago.
The family writes that Peanut alerted her owner that she wanted to go
outside Friday and took him to a field behind the house on Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula.

The owner found the little girl, brought her inside and
called 911.

The Delta County Sheriff’s Office confirms the story and says the girl is OK.

Authorities say they found the parents nearby in a residence with “unsafe and unsanitary living conditions.”

The girl and another young girl were removed from the home. Prosecutors are reviewing the case.